The worlds of digital content and real objects have collided
American Alliance of Museums Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo 2017
St Louis, Missouri
The Museums and Heritage Show 2017
London, UK
We were delighted to be invited to showcase ColliderCase at the American Alliance of Museums Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo 2017 in St Louis. The Alliance represents more than 35,000 museum professionals, volunteers, institutions, and corporate partners serving the museum field.
ColliderCase technology is brilliantly suited to the interpretation of natural history collections. In order to demonstrate how the technology can be applied to natural history subjects we chose to interpret a replica fossil from the Upper Jurassic period. The fossilised insect is part of a superfamily of dragonflies called Aeshnoidea.
The interpretation demonstrates the striking similarities in the features of the ancient insect to those of the dragonflies we see today. A child-friendly picture book style was chosen for this exhibit, however the content could be segmented to effectively provide for different audiences, enabling for example, both a natural history buff and a primary aged student to be catered for in the same space.
The anatomy of the dark fossil is traced in light and clearly labelled. Photographs describe in microscopic detail how the eyes of the ancient insects might have looked and short videos show slow motion footage of the complex way that a dragonfly’s four wings interact, allowing it to hover and change direction with great accuracy.
The viewer watches as a flurry of insects fills the screen. By giving us the insect’s perspective, ColliderCase demonstrates the dragonfly’s remarkable ability to target a single insect in a swarm, illustrating beautifully why this is one of the most successful lifeforms on the planet.
Visitors can remain focused on the specimen while it 'changes' before their eyes. As the final trick, the luminous colours of the ancient insect are reimagined the dragonfly emerges in 3D from the matrix, performs a hovering spin, then flutters towards the viewer.